Six T's Of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction

842 Words2 Pages

After examining a series of studies, one conclusion was made—good, effective teachers are more important than curriculum materials, pedagogical approaches, or proven programs. For ten years, the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement have been compiling data based on some of the best elementary teachers in the country. These teachers were chosen from schools that reflected the diversity of the country and schools that enrolled lower income children. This article, The Six T’s of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction, examines time, texts, teach, talk, tasks, and tests and how they are used in the classroom by effective teachers.
The teachers that were part of the study spent more time focusing on reading and writing …show more content…

Students should have access to books that will provide high accuracy reading. The teachers studied realized that not all students read at the same level, and many of these teachers were left to buy books that were needed to successfully teach their students. Since these teachers catered to the needs of each student, the teachers noticed an acceleration of literacy development even in their lowest-achieving students.
Today, what many people may consider good teaching involves very little active instruction. Many teachers are teaching through assignment and assessment and active teaching (explicit explanation, direct teaching) has been forgotten and replaced by classroom instruction. The teachers that were studied offered clear demonstrations to their students. They would have the students watch them perform a demonstration which led to their students becoming more …show more content…

Within these classrooms, students would work on their writing for over a week, they would read whole books, complete individual and group research projects, and work on tasks that combined different content areas. These students were assigned tasks that was more challenging and substantive when compared to other elementary classrooms. These teachers used less worksheet assignments and more complex assignments during the school day.
Lastly, these teachers evaluated their students based on effort and improvement rather than achievement status. This allowed for all students to have a chance at earning good grades. Many teachers grade based on correctness which allows for high-achieving students to do less work to earn good grades and low-achieving students are unable to earn good grades regardless of their effort or improvement. In order for teacher to grade based on effort and improvement, they must truly know their students in order to grade. They must recognize the students’ growth and the effort that was put into the

Open Document